While hanging out on Laurie Halse Anderson's excellent blog, perusing her advice on revision, I clicked over to her recommended link, a Washington Post article mostly about what kids are reading and why, or why not.
James Blasingame is an English professor at Arizona State, among other things. And he's reporting in from the recent National Council of Teachers of English conference. Great posting, including a couple of gems like this:
We read books for many reasons. Sometimes we read books to access information and to broaden our knowledge.
Sometimes we read books just for fun, to escape from the world for awhile and indulge our imaginations.
And sometimes we read to make sense of our lives, to better understand the world and our place in it.
And from one of my favorite writers of all-time:
Katherine Paterson, United States Library of Congress Living Legend Award winner, once explained that literature allows young people to prepare for life’s difficulties by experiencing them from the safe distance of reading.
The Safe Distance of Reading. Don't you just love that?
Here's hoping Santa brings you and yours lots of wonderful reading this holiday season!
3 comments:
I do like that "safe distance of reading." What a lovely way to put it, too. We can learn about what others feel, how they resolve or express those feelings, and what kind of effect those actions have on others. Very nice thinking. Thx!
And have a merry Christmas!!
I do love that quote, Augusta. thanks for sharing.
Thanks for commenting, Lee and Carol. Here's hoping Santa's good to you and yours and brings lots of writing inspiration!
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